Hissène Habré
Encyclopedia
Hissène Habré also spelled Hissen Habré, was the leader of Chad
from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990.
, northern Chad, then a colony
of France
. He was born into a family of shepherds. He is a member of the Anakaza
branch of the Gorane (Toubou
) ethnic group. After primary schooling, he obtained a post in the French colonial administration, where he impressed his superiors and gained a scholarship to study in France. The school he was awarded the scholarship to was the Institute of Overseas Higher Studies, located in Paris, France. He completed a university degree in political science in Paris, and returned to Chad in 1971. He also obtained several other degrees and earned his Doctorate from the Institute. After a further brief period of government service, he went to Tripoli
and joined the Forces Armées du Nord (Armed Forces of the North, FAN), an armed Chadian rebel movement. FAN operated in the extreme north of Chad, among the Toubou nomadic people, and was led by Goukouni Oueddei
. FAN had itself split from another rebel movement, FROLINAT
, led by Abba Siddick
.
Habré first came to international attention when a group under his command attacked the town of Bardaï
in Tibesti, on 21 April 1974, and took three Europeans hostage, with the intention of ransoming them for money and arms. The captives were a German doctor, Christophe Staewen
(whose wife was killed in the attack), and two French citizens, Françoise Claustre
, an archeologist, and Marc Combe, a development worker. Marc Combe escaped in 1975 but, despite the intervention of the French Government, Madame Claustre (whose husband was a senior French government official) was not released until 1 February 1977.
Habré split with Goukouni Oueddei, partly over this hostage-taking incident (which became known as the "Claustre affair" in France), but retained the designation "FAN" for his rebel army.
in that position; Malloum had been both prime minister and president since 1975. Habré's term as prime minister ended, however, a year later, when Malloum's government ended. Elections brought Goukouni Oueddei
to the presidency.
Habré deposed Oueddei in a coup, backed by the CIA, on June 7, 1982 and the FAN leader became president; the post of prime minister was abolished. There followed a period of turmoil.
against groups such as the Sara, Hadjerai and the Zaghawa, killing and arresting group members en masse when it perceived that their leaders were posing a threat to the regime. Following his rise to power, Habré created a secret police
force known as the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), under which opponents of Habré were tortured and executed. Some methods of torture commonly used by the DDS included; burning with incandescent objects, spraying of gas into the eyes, ears, and nose; forced swallowing of water, and forcing the mouths of detainees around the exhaust pipes of running cars. It is estimated that 40,000 Chadians nationwide either died in detention or were executed under Habré, and that over 200,000 were subjected to torture. Human Rights Watch
later dubbed Habré "Africa
's Pinochet
."
invaded Chad on July 1980 in an attempt to drive out Habré, occupying and annexing the Aozou Strip
. The United States
and France
responded by aiding Chad in an attempt to contain Libya's regional ambitions under Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi
.
Civil war deepened. On 15 December 1980, Libya occupied all of northern Chad, but Habré defeated Libyan troops and drove them out in November 1981. In 1983, Libyan troops occupied all of the country north of Koro Toro
. The United States used a clandestine base in Chad to train captured Libyan soldiers whom it was organizing into an anti-Gaddafi force.
Habré's aid from the USA and France helped him to win the war against Gaddafi's Libya. The Libyan occupation of the north of Koro Toro ended when Habré defeated him in 1987. By that time, the war was beginning to end, and had ended by 1988.
Despite this victory, Habré's government was weak, and strongly opposed by members of the Zaghawa ethnic group. A rebel offensive in November 1990, which was led by Idriss Déby
, a Zaghawa former army commander who had participated in a plot against Habré in 1989 and subsequently fled to Sudan
, defeated Habré's forces. The French chose not to assist Habré on this occasion, allowing him to be ousted; it is possible that they actively aided Déby. Explanation and speculation regarding the reasons for France's abandonment of Habré include the adoption of a policy of non-interference in intra-Chadian conflicts, dissatisfaction with Habré's unwillingness to move towards multiparty democracy, and favoritism by Habré towards American rather than French companies with regard to oil development. Habré fled to Cameroon
, and the rebels entered N'Djamena on December 2, 1990; Habré subsequently went into exile in Senegal
.
and France
supported Habré, seeing him as a bulwark against the Gaddafi government in neighboring Libya
. Under President Ronald Reagan
, the United States gave covert CIA paramilitary support to help Habré take power and remained Habré's strongest ally throughout his rule, providing his regime with massive amounts of military aid. The United States also used a clandestine base in Chad to train captured Libyan soldiers whom it was organizing into an anti-Qaddafi force.
"The CIA was so deeply involved in bringing Habré to power I can't conceive they didn't know what was going on," said Donald Norland, U.S. ambassador to Chad from 1979 to 1981. "But there was no debate on the policy and virtually no discussion of the wisdom of doing what we did."
Documents obtained by Human Rights Watch
show that the United States provided Habré's DDS with training, intelligence, arms, and other support despite knowledge of its atrocities. Records discovered in the DDS' meticulous archives describe training programs by American instructors for DDS agents and officials, including a course in the United States that was attended by some of the DDS' most feared torturers. According to the Chadian Truth Commission, the United States also provided the DDS with monthly infusions of monetary aid and financed a regional network of intelligence networks code-named "Mosaic" that Chad used to pursue suspected opponents of Habré's regime even after they fled the country.
In the summer of 1983, when Libya invaded northern Chad and threatened to topple Habre, France sent 3,000 paratroops with air support, while the Reagan administration provided two AWACS electronic surveillance planes to coordinate air cover. By 1987 Gaddafi's forces had retreated.
The United States and France ignored Habre's increasingly ruthless one-party rule. "Habré was a remarkably able man with a brilliant sense of how to play the outside world," a former senior U.S. official said. "He was also a bloodthirsty tyrant and torturer. It is fair to say we knew who and what he was and chose to turn a blind eye."
groups hold Habré responsible for the killing of thousands of people, but the exact number is unknown. Killings included massacres against ethnic groups in the south (1984), against the Hadjerai (1987), and against the Zaghawa (1989). He authorized tens of thousands of political murders and physical torture
. For these crimes, he has received the nickname "the African Pinochet
", after the Chilean president until 1990.
Between 1993 and 2003, Belgium had universal jurisdiction
legislation allowing the most serious violations of human rights to be tried in national as well as international courts, without any direct connection to the country of the alleged perpetrator, victims or where the crimes took place. Despite the repeal of the legislation, investigations against Habré went ahead and in September 2005 he was indicted for crimes against humanity, torture, war crimes and other human rights violations. Senegal, where Habré has been in exile for 17 years, has Habré under nominal house arrest in Dakar
.
On March 17, 2006, the European Parliament
demanded that Senegal turn over Habré to Belgium
to be tried. Senegal did not comply, and it at first refused extradition
demands from the African Union
which arose after Belgium asked to try Habré. The ATDPH has expressed its approval of the decision. If he were to be turned over, he would have become the first former dictator to be extradited by a third-party country to stand trial for human rights abuses. In 2007, Senegal set up its own special war-crimes court to try Habré under pressure from the African Union. On April 8, 2008, the National Assembly of Senegal
voted to amend the constitution to clear the way for Habré to be prosecuted in Senegal;
Ibrahima Gueye
was appointed as trial coordinator in May 2008. A joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate
voted in July 2008 to approve a bill empowering Senegalese courts to try people for crimes committed in other countries and for crimes that were committed more than ten years beforehand; this made it constitutionally possible to try Habré. Senegalese Minister of Justice Madicke Niang appointed four investigative judges on this occasion.
A 2007 movie by director Klaartje Quirijns
, The Dictator Hunter, tells the story of the activists Souleymane Guengueng
and Reed Brody who led the efforts to bring Habré to trial.
On August 15, 2008, a Chadian court sentenced Habré to death in absentia for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with allegations that he had worked with rebels inside Chad to oust Déby. François Serres, a lawyer for Habré, criticized this trial on August 22 for unfairness and secrecy. According to Serres, the accusation on which the trial was based was previously unknown and Habré had not received any notification of the trial.
On 16 September 2008, 14 victims filed new complaints with a Senegalese prosecutor, accusing Habré of crimes against humanity and torture.
The Senegalese government added an amendment in 2008, which would allow Habre to be tried in court. Senegal later changed their position, however, requesting 27 million euros in funding from the international community before going through with the trial. This prompted Belgium to pressure the International Court of Justice
to force Senegal to either extradite Habré to Belgium to proceed with the trial. This request was denied by the ICJ.
In November 2010, the court of justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ruled that Senegal could not hold trial in the matter through local court only, and asked for the creation of a special tribunal on the matter of Habre's prosecution. In April 2011, after initial reticence, Senegal agreed to the creation of an Ad-Hoc tribunal in collaboration with the African Union, the Chadian state and with international funding.
Senegal changed their position again however, walking out during discussions on establishing the court on May 30, 2011 without explanation. The African union commission on Habré, in preparation for their next summit on June 30 published a report urging to press Senegal to extradite Habré to Belgium.
On July 8, 2011, Senegal officials announced that Habré will be extradited to Chad on July 11.
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990.
Early life
Habré was born in 1942 in Faya-LargeauFaya-Largeau
Located in the Sahara, Faya's climate is classed as hot desert on the Köppen climate classification. It experiences hot winters and very hot summers with the peak average maximum temperature reaching in May and the average minimum reaching its lowest in January at . Rainfall averages out at about...
, northern Chad, then a colony
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He was born into a family of shepherds. He is a member of the Anakaza
Anakaza
The Anakaza are a Chadian tribe of the Toubou Daza people. One of the largest of Daza subgroups, they are a nomadic people traditionally employed in camel-herding. They are mostly located in the Saharan region of Borkou in northern Chad, they can be found in a vast area from Faya-Largeau to...
branch of the Gorane (Toubou
Toubou
The Tubu are an ethnic group that live mainly in northern Chad, but also in Libya, Niger and Sudan....
) ethnic group. After primary schooling, he obtained a post in the French colonial administration, where he impressed his superiors and gained a scholarship to study in France. The school he was awarded the scholarship to was the Institute of Overseas Higher Studies, located in Paris, France. He completed a university degree in political science in Paris, and returned to Chad in 1971. He also obtained several other degrees and earned his Doctorate from the Institute. After a further brief period of government service, he went to Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
and joined the Forces Armées du Nord (Armed Forces of the North, FAN), an armed Chadian rebel movement. FAN operated in the extreme north of Chad, among the Toubou nomadic people, and was led by Goukouni Oueddei
Goukouni Oueddei
Goukouni Oueddei is a Chadian political figure. He was Head of State of Chad from 1979 to 1982. He is currently in exile.-Biography:...
. FAN had itself split from another rebel movement, FROLINAT
FROLINAT
-Origins:The organization was born as the result of a political union between the leftist Chadian National Union , led by Ibrahim Abatcha, and the General Union of the Children of Chad which was led by Ahmed Hassan Musa. Musa was close to the Muslim Brotherhood and was an Islamist...
, led by Abba Siddick
Abba Siddick
Abba Siddick is a Muslim Chadian politician and revolutionary born in what was the Oubangui-Chari French colony . In passing in Chad , he entered in active politics in the Chadian Progressive Party , a nationalist and radical African political party founded in 1947 and led by Gabriel Lisette...
.
Habré first came to international attention when a group under his command attacked the town of Bardaï
Bardai, Chad
Bardaï is a small town and oasis in the extreme north of Chad. It is the main town of the Tibesti Region, which was formed in 2008 from the Tibesti Department of the former Bourkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region....
in Tibesti, on 21 April 1974, and took three Europeans hostage, with the intention of ransoming them for money and arms. The captives were a German doctor, Christophe Staewen
Christophe Staewen
Dr. Christophe Staewen was born in 1926. He is a German medical doctor, specialist of psychiatry, neurology and psychotherapy. In 1963, amongst the people of Yoruba, he began to study in Western Nigeria the conditions of uprooting of these Africans caused by the increasing confrontation with the...
(whose wife was killed in the attack), and two French citizens, Françoise Claustre
Françoise Claustre
Françoise Claustre , was a French archeologist who was taken hostage by a group of Chadian rebels, led by Hissène Habré, on 20 April 1974, at Bardaï, in the Tibesti Mountains of northern Chad. At the same time, the rebels also seized a German doctor, Christophe Staewen, and Marc Combe, who was an...
, an archeologist, and Marc Combe, a development worker. Marc Combe escaped in 1975 but, despite the intervention of the French Government, Madame Claustre (whose husband was a senior French government official) was not released until 1 February 1977.
Habré split with Goukouni Oueddei, partly over this hostage-taking incident (which became known as the "Claustre affair" in France), but retained the designation "FAN" for his rebel army.
Rise to power
On 29 August 1978, Habré was given the post of prime minister of Chad, replacing Félix MalloumFélix Malloum
General Félix Malloum or Félix Malloum Ngakoutou Bey-Ndi was a Chadian politician from the south. He served as an officer in the Chadian Military and as a member of the ruling Chadian Progressive Party . He later became the Chief of Staff with the rank of colonel...
in that position; Malloum had been both prime minister and president since 1975. Habré's term as prime minister ended, however, a year later, when Malloum's government ended. Elections brought Goukouni Oueddei
Goukouni Oueddei
Goukouni Oueddei is a Chadian political figure. He was Head of State of Chad from 1979 to 1982. He is currently in exile.-Biography:...
to the presidency.
Habré deposed Oueddei in a coup, backed by the CIA, on June 7, 1982 and the FAN leader became president; the post of prime minister was abolished. There followed a period of turmoil.
Rule
Habré ruled Chad from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990 by Idriss Déby and fled to Senegal. Habré's one party regime was characterized by widespread human rights abuses and atrocities. Habré's government periodically engaged in ethnic cleansingEthnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
against groups such as the Sara, Hadjerai and the Zaghawa, killing and arresting group members en masse when it perceived that their leaders were posing a threat to the regime. Following his rise to power, Habré created a secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
force known as the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), under which opponents of Habré were tortured and executed. Some methods of torture commonly used by the DDS included; burning with incandescent objects, spraying of gas into the eyes, ears, and nose; forced swallowing of water, and forcing the mouths of detainees around the exhaust pipes of running cars. It is estimated that 40,000 Chadians nationwide either died in detention or were executed under Habré, and that over 200,000 were subjected to torture. Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
later dubbed Habré "Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
's Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
."
War with Libya
LibyaLibya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
invaded Chad on July 1980 in an attempt to drive out Habré, occupying and annexing the Aozou Strip
Aozou Strip
The Aouzou Strip is a strip of land in northern Chad which lies along the border with Libya, extending south to a depth of about 100 kilometers into Chad's Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region for an area of 114,000 km²...
. The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
responded by aiding Chad in an attempt to contain Libya's regional ambitions under Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
.
Civil war deepened. On 15 December 1980, Libya occupied all of northern Chad, but Habré defeated Libyan troops and drove them out in November 1981. In 1983, Libyan troops occupied all of the country north of Koro Toro
Koro Toro
Koro Toro is an anthropological and an archaeological site located in southern Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region in Chad. It is known for the discovery of the Australopithecus bahrelghazali fossil hominin that was first discovered in January 1995....
. The United States used a clandestine base in Chad to train captured Libyan soldiers whom it was organizing into an anti-Gaddafi force.
Habré's aid from the USA and France helped him to win the war against Gaddafi's Libya. The Libyan occupation of the north of Koro Toro ended when Habré defeated him in 1987. By that time, the war was beginning to end, and had ended by 1988.
Despite this victory, Habré's government was weak, and strongly opposed by members of the Zaghawa ethnic group. A rebel offensive in November 1990, which was led by Idriss Déby
Idriss Déby
General Idriss Déby Itno is the President of Chad and the head of the Patriotic Salvation Movement. Déby is of the Bidyat clan of the Zaghawa ethnic group. He added "Itno" to his surname in January 2006.-Rise to power:...
, a Zaghawa former army commander who had participated in a plot against Habré in 1989 and subsequently fled to Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, defeated Habré's forces. The French chose not to assist Habré on this occasion, allowing him to be ousted; it is possible that they actively aided Déby. Explanation and speculation regarding the reasons for France's abandonment of Habré include the adoption of a policy of non-interference in intra-Chadian conflicts, dissatisfaction with Habré's unwillingness to move towards multiparty democracy, and favoritism by Habré towards American rather than French companies with regard to oil development. Habré fled to Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
, and the rebels entered N'Djamena on December 2, 1990; Habré subsequently went into exile in Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
.
Support of the U.S.A and France
The United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
supported Habré, seeing him as a bulwark against the Gaddafi government in neighboring Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. Under President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, the United States gave covert CIA paramilitary support to help Habré take power and remained Habré's strongest ally throughout his rule, providing his regime with massive amounts of military aid. The United States also used a clandestine base in Chad to train captured Libyan soldiers whom it was organizing into an anti-Qaddafi force.
"The CIA was so deeply involved in bringing Habré to power I can't conceive they didn't know what was going on," said Donald Norland, U.S. ambassador to Chad from 1979 to 1981. "But there was no debate on the policy and virtually no discussion of the wisdom of doing what we did."
Documents obtained by Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
show that the United States provided Habré's DDS with training, intelligence, arms, and other support despite knowledge of its atrocities. Records discovered in the DDS' meticulous archives describe training programs by American instructors for DDS agents and officials, including a course in the United States that was attended by some of the DDS' most feared torturers. According to the Chadian Truth Commission, the United States also provided the DDS with monthly infusions of monetary aid and financed a regional network of intelligence networks code-named "Mosaic" that Chad used to pursue suspected opponents of Habré's regime even after they fled the country.
In the summer of 1983, when Libya invaded northern Chad and threatened to topple Habre, France sent 3,000 paratroops with air support, while the Reagan administration provided two AWACS electronic surveillance planes to coordinate air cover. By 1987 Gaddafi's forces had retreated.
The United States and France ignored Habre's increasingly ruthless one-party rule. "Habré was a remarkably able man with a brilliant sense of how to play the outside world," a former senior U.S. official said. "He was also a bloodthirsty tyrant and torturer. It is fair to say we knew who and what he was and chose to turn a blind eye."
Legal proceedings
Human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
groups hold Habré responsible for the killing of thousands of people, but the exact number is unknown. Killings included massacres against ethnic groups in the south (1984), against the Hadjerai (1987), and against the Zaghawa (1989). He authorized tens of thousands of political murders and physical torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
. For these crimes, he has received the nickname "the African Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
", after the Chilean president until 1990.
Between 1993 and 2003, Belgium had universal jurisdiction
Universal jurisdiction
Universal jurisdiction or universality principle is a principle in public international law whereby states claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state, regardless of nationality, country of residence, or any other...
legislation allowing the most serious violations of human rights to be tried in national as well as international courts, without any direct connection to the country of the alleged perpetrator, victims or where the crimes took place. Despite the repeal of the legislation, investigations against Habré went ahead and in September 2005 he was indicted for crimes against humanity, torture, war crimes and other human rights violations. Senegal, where Habré has been in exile for 17 years, has Habré under nominal house arrest in Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
.
On March 17, 2006, the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
demanded that Senegal turn over Habré to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
to be tried. Senegal did not comply, and it at first refused extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
demands from the African Union
African Union
The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity...
which arose after Belgium asked to try Habré. The ATDPH has expressed its approval of the decision. If he were to be turned over, he would have become the first former dictator to be extradited by a third-party country to stand trial for human rights abuses. In 2007, Senegal set up its own special war-crimes court to try Habré under pressure from the African Union. On April 8, 2008, the National Assembly of Senegal
National Assembly of Senegal
The National Assembly of Senegal is the lower house of Senegal's parliament.-The current National Assembly:The current National Assembly, formed following elections held on 29 April 2001, has a total of 150 elected members who serve five-year terms. The electoral system is a mixed member...
voted to amend the constitution to clear the way for Habré to be prosecuted in Senegal;
Ibrahima Gueye
Ibrahima Gueye
Ibrahima Gueye is a Senegalese footballer who plays for K.S.C. Lokeren as a central defender.- Career :Gueye started his professional playing career with Dakar UC in Senegal before joining another Senegalese club, AS Douanes...
was appointed as trial coordinator in May 2008. A joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate
Senate of Senegal
The Senate of Senegal has been the upper house of the Parliament of Senegal from 1999 until 2001 and again since 2007.-History and elections:...
voted in July 2008 to approve a bill empowering Senegalese courts to try people for crimes committed in other countries and for crimes that were committed more than ten years beforehand; this made it constitutionally possible to try Habré. Senegalese Minister of Justice Madicke Niang appointed four investigative judges on this occasion.
A 2007 movie by director Klaartje Quirijns
Klaartje Quirijns
Klaartje Quirijns is a Dutch film and television director and producer. In The Netherlands she worked as a documentary director and producer for the leading public stations ....
, The Dictator Hunter, tells the story of the activists Souleymane Guengueng
Souleymane Guengueng
Souleymane Guengueng is a Chadian torture victim and human rights activist, who was instrumental in bringing legal action against the former dictator Hissène Habré. He plays himself in the 2007 movie "The Dictator Hunter" by director Klaartje Quirijns.He is president fouder of AVCRP.-External...
and Reed Brody who led the efforts to bring Habré to trial.
On August 15, 2008, a Chadian court sentenced Habré to death in absentia for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with allegations that he had worked with rebels inside Chad to oust Déby. François Serres, a lawyer for Habré, criticized this trial on August 22 for unfairness and secrecy. According to Serres, the accusation on which the trial was based was previously unknown and Habré had not received any notification of the trial.
On 16 September 2008, 14 victims filed new complaints with a Senegalese prosecutor, accusing Habré of crimes against humanity and torture.
The Senegalese government added an amendment in 2008, which would allow Habre to be tried in court. Senegal later changed their position, however, requesting 27 million euros in funding from the international community before going through with the trial. This prompted Belgium to pressure the International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
to force Senegal to either extradite Habré to Belgium to proceed with the trial. This request was denied by the ICJ.
In November 2010, the court of justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ruled that Senegal could not hold trial in the matter through local court only, and asked for the creation of a special tribunal on the matter of Habre's prosecution. In April 2011, after initial reticence, Senegal agreed to the creation of an Ad-Hoc tribunal in collaboration with the African Union, the Chadian state and with international funding.
Senegal changed their position again however, walking out during discussions on establishing the court on May 30, 2011 without explanation. The African union commission on Habré, in preparation for their next summit on June 30 published a report urging to press Senegal to extradite Habré to Belgium.
On July 8, 2011, Senegal officials announced that Habré will be extradited to Chad on July 11.
External links
- Belgium v. Senegal Hissene Habre Case of 19 February 2009 and International Court of JusticeInternational Court of JusticeThe International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
(ICJ) and ICJ Docket and BBC and The State and Charlotte Observer
- The Case against Hissène Habré, an "African Pinochet", Human Rights WatchHuman Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
. - Bringing a Dictator to Justice, Human Rights Watch.
- Trying Habre in Senegal: An African Solution to an African Problem?, JURISTJURISTJURIST is an online legal news service hosted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, powered by a staff of more than 40 law students working in Pittsburgh and other US locations under the direction of founding Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Professor Bernard Hibbitts, Research Director Jaclyn...
- Hissène Habré before Justice, Trial Switzerland.